Overview of organisation:

Refugee Legal is an independent community legal centre specialising in refugee and immigration law, policy and practice. Refugee Legal has been assisting asylum seekers, refugees and disadvantaged migrants in the community and in detention for over 31 years and has substantial legal casework experience and expertise. Refugee Legal’s work involves the provision of key legal assistance to people who could not otherwise obtain it due to financial and other forms of distinct disadvantage often related to their cultural or linguistically diverse backgrounds or experiences of torture or trauma. Refugee Legal also conducts extensive law reform, advocacy and education programs.

Position Summary:

The social worker/case worker will work to support the increasing number of vulnerable clients, particularly women who experience family violence, who come to us with a range of complex non-legal needs.

The social worker/case worker will work alongside our legal team to combine social supports with expert legal assistance to:

• Help address the pressing and complex non-legal issues faced by these vulnerable clients
• Ensure that clients are connected to the non-legal services they need
• Ensure that clients can properly engage with the legal process
• Better utilise legal resources and create a more efficient legal service

The social worker/case worker will play a critical role in referring these particularly vulnerable clients to many of the wide-ranging non-legal essential support services they require, including referral to counselling services, housing support organisations, medical services and others as required.

The role of the social worker/case worker will not include ongoing case management of clients.

The social worker/case worker reports directly and is responsible to the Executive Director, who in turn, is responsible to the Refugee Legal Management Committee.

A position description is attached.